Researchers document Germans who died at Soviet internment camp for Nazis after World War II

Researchers at the former Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp have finished compiling a list of nearly 12,000 Germans who died there during its use as an internment camp by the Soviets after World War II.

On Thursday, memorial officials released the 260-page document, saying they aimed in part to provide a measure of closure to the families of those who died.

"The book of names will serve as a monument to the dead," said Horst Seferens, a spokesman for the Sachsenhausen museum.

Soviet secret police used the camp just north of Berlin to imprison many Nazis as well as critics of the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany after the defeat of Adolf Hitler's regime. In all, an estimated 60,000 people were sent to "Special Camp No. 1" in 1945-50.